Former anti-vaxxer urges everyone to get the vaccine after being hospitalized with COVID-19

A former anti-vaxxer recently expressed regret for not getting vaccinated against the COVID-19 vaccine. In a now-viral TikTok video posted earlier this month, a woman named Shannon Christine Marie addressed other anti-vaxxers from a hospital room while struggling to keep from coughing. Urging them to get the vaccine before it's too later, Marie also admitted that she'd believed in a widespread anti-vaccine conspiracy that her blood type could somehow protect her from contracting COVID-19. "Hey guys, I have O negative blood type and I did not get the vaccine. I was against the vaccine, I was scared of the vaccine," she says in the video, which has been viewed over 500k times.

"I didn't think that if I even got COVID, it was going to infect me in a negative way because I seem to have thought that my blood type was going to be a factor and I was going to be okay. Anyway, it turned out that my blood type has nothing to do with it," Marie admitted amid coughs. The idea that people with blood type O have a lower chance of being infected with or developing serious illnesses from COVID-19 came from a study published in March 2021. 

Published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the study, titled Association Between ABO and Rh Blood Groups and SARS-CoV-2 Infection or Severe COVID-19 Illness, stated: "The O and Rh− blood groups may be associated with a slightly lower risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 illness." Although this by no means implied that people with O negative blood type are immune to COVID-19, the anti-vaxxer community latched onto it for dear life and pushed the false claim that such individuals cannot get infected and therefore do not need to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.

"Right now, the nurse said that in June they only had two COVID patients in here in one week," Marie continued in her video, "and now they have a hundred and two. My suggestion is either use your masks and sanitizer still or get the vaccine. I wish I'd got the vaccine. I wish I wasn't anti-vaccine. Do what you want, just be safe." In a follow-up video posted a week later, she opened up about her COVID experience and her thoughts on the vaccine now.

Filming from what appears to be her home while still on supplemental oxygen, Marie said: "I did not get the vaccine. I wish I had gotten the vaccine. I will be getting the vaccine but I do have to wait three months. I think that, personally, if you're interested in maybe getting the vaccine, you should get a full panel of blood work, go to the doctor, you and your doctor make a decision together. If the vaccine is not going to be the right fit for you, then I would surely expect that you would start socially distancing and giving your space between you and other people, because you don't want this."

"You don't want your parents to get it," she continued. "Anyways, I just pray that you all stay well. I learned a lesson [that] I should've gotten the vaccine and that you should seek medical advice in order to make the best decision for you and your health. But, if you can take that step forward and go see a doctor, check your blood work, and then get the vaccine, that's probably the smartest thing that you can do." While Marie certainly had the right intention while urging others to seek medical advice before getting the vaccine, many TikTok users corrected one error in her statements. "You do not need bloodwork to get the vaccine," pointed out one user while another wrote: "Thank you from a doctor — but one correction: no lab workup necessary prior, just get it."